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In brief: Childhood trauma is taken to heart

In brief

Childhood trauma is taken to heart

Published: March, 2014

Child abuse and traumatic experiences in early life raise the
risk of heart disease many years later, according to a study
reported in the American Heart Association journal
Circulation. Kaiser Permanente, the largest health
maintenance organization in the United States, collaborated with
the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention on the research,
in which more than 17,000 patients of both sexes answered
questions about childhood physical and emotional abuse and
neglect, family conflict and breakups, domestic violence, and
parental drug abuse and alcoholism, as well as their own current
or past problems with anger and depression. A typical question:
"Did a parent or other adult in the household never, sometimes,
often, or very often swear at you, insult you, or put you down?"

At an average age of 56, about 10% of the people responding had
heart disease. After controls for ethnic origin and education,
all the experiences mentioned in the questionnaire except marital
discord strongly increased the risk of heart disease, with
emotional abuse by parents raising the odds most. The more kinds
of childhood trauma or abuse a person had experienced, the higher
the likelihood of heart disease in middle age and later. With
seven or more kinds, the odds more than tripled.

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